


New Rules

by 1000dogs



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-07-10 09:12:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15946277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1000dogs/pseuds/1000dogs
Summary: A lot has changed since the gate was closed. New relationships are forming and old one's are changing. The only thing that keeps things somewhat under control is a list of rules to keep each other from getting hurt.





	1. Chapter One

“Can.”

“Can.”

“Teh.”

“Teh.”

“Lope.”

“Lope.”

“Cantaloupe.”

“Cantaloupe.”

El speared a cube of orange fruit with her fork and studied it carefully. “What is it?”

“It’s fruit. It’s sweet, you’ll like it. Plus, it’s good for you.” Hopper had been trying to introduce Eleven to food other than Eggos, mostly at Joyce’s behest, but for some reason fruit seemed the most suspicious. 

Taking a quick whiff, she narrowed her eyes. 

“Kid, just put it in your mouth and eat it.” 

El turned her harsh gaze on him, but did as he asked. As she chewed, her expression changed, going soft. Her eyebrows lifted and her eyes widened ever so slightly. Hopper chuckled, getting up to refill his coffee cup. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted her trying to shovel as much of the fruit into her mouth as she could, a habit he was beginning to blame the Henderson boy for. 

“If you don’t slow down, you’re going to choke,” he warned. 

“Choke?” she repeated after swallowing. 

“You know what choke means.” When she continued to stare at him, he sighed, “When something clogs your airway so you can’t breathe.” 

Slowly, El moved her hands up around her throat, miming being choked. Her eyebrows raised in question and he nodded. 

“Yeah.” He sat back down at the table. “What do choke and cantaloupe have in common?” 

She thought for a moment before hesitantly answering, “They both start with ‘C’.” 

Hopper couldn’t help the small smile that graced his features. ‘Ch’ had been a hard letter combination for the girl to grasp, but she was finally getting there. He knew she was a smart kid, but that didn’t stop him from worrying. The transition into high school was hard enough for regular kids, but when it came to Eleven, Hopper had to worry about her lack of education on top of all the normal teenage daughter concerns. Not to mention what would happen when he set her loose on the world. He was already having stress dreams of the principal calling him because his fourteen year old blew up the Algebra I classroom. 

He looked over at her and she smiled around her rather large bite of breakfast. He could hear her foot tapping absentmindedly under the table. 

A lot had changed since November. She might not be completely under control, but she seemed more at peace. She didn’t bristle at every noise. She didn’t lock herself in her room every time something didn’t go her way. She rarely used her powers for anything but showing off or being lazy. She was still quiet, between her and their severe lack of neighbors Hopper had grown accustomed to silence, but she was beginning to resemble a regular teenager. The rules were starting to change. 

The quiet sereneness of the woods that surrounded them was broken by the sounds of leaves crunching underfoot and then a loud thud. El straightened up and Hopper set his mug down, both of them listening closely. Nothing else had happened since she closed the gate, but the two of them were still a little nervous, a little overly cautious. 

“Ow! Shit!” a voice yelled from outside the cabin. “Hopper, are you kidding me?” 

“Looks like your boyfriend’s here.” 

Eleven sprang from her seat and darted to the window, watching as Mike pushed himself off the ground and trudged to the porch. 

“Are the booby traps really necessary?” he asked as she opened the door for him. 

Hopper eyed the leaves stuck in his hair and the dirt smudged along his cheek, trying to hide his smugness. “Yes.”

Mike shot him a glare on his way to the couch. He dropped his backpack on the middle cushion and pulled out VHS tape, holding it up to show El. 

“I thought we’d watch _ Temple of Doom _ today.” 

“You know the rules, Wheeler,” Hopper said gruffly, setting his and El’s dishes in the sink. 

With a sigh, Mike pulled a book from his bag as well. “And practice our multiplication tables.” 

Hopper gave him an approving nod as he grabbed his hat and headed towards the door, stopping next to Eleven. 

“Remember we’re looking for a house today,” he reminded her as he took hold of the door knob. 

“Why can’t we just stay here?” she asked for what felt like the hundredth time. 

“You know why.” He stepped out onto the porch. “Lock the door when I leave and again when Mike leaves.” 

El crossed her arms and let out a puff of air. 

“Just do it, okay?” Hopper said before striding away and closing the door behind him. 

Reaching up, El slowly made her way through the bolts. When she had finished locking them in, she turned to Mike who grinned and tossed the math practice book over his shoulder.

“So India Jones?”

The action earned him a smile from Eleven that made his heart soar. She sat down on the couch and crossed her legs under her, watching intently as he turned on the TV set and inserted the tape into the VCR. 

“ _ Indiana _ Jones. Like the state Hawkins is in,” Mike said in his best teacher voice, deciding he should fit some education in. 

“Why does he have the name of a state?”

“It was the name of his dog,” Mike explained, but she just stared at him blankly. 

“Why does the dog have the name of a state?”

“Lot’s of locations are also names,” he told her as he joined her on the couch. “Like Paris or Dakota.” El just blinked at him and he shrugged and sighed, “Yeah, I don’t get it either.” 

The logos began to fill the screen as Mike settled further into the cushions. 

“Do you remember what Indiana Jones does?” he asked. 

“Fight the bad men.” 

He nodded. “And he teaches. Archaeology, which is like history.” 

“But with digging,” she recalled. 

“Yeah, and it takes place during-” 

“One, nine, three, six,” she finished for him. 

“Nineteen thirty-six,” he corrected, causing her to blink at him. “You have to say it that way.” 

El sighed but said it correctly. 

“That’s when World War Two was,” he told her. 

“Nazis?”

“They were the Germans,” Mike nodded. 

Eleven nodded with him, but she had very little idea what he was talking about. Something Mike, of course, picked up on. 

“After this, I’m showing you an atlas,” he said, turning his attention back to the movie. 

 

-

 

“Hey, Hop,” Joyce greeted, pulling her cigarette from between her lips. 

“Hey.” Hopper stopped on his path into the station and turned to face her on the sidewalk. “You got the morning off?” 

“No, I’m just,” she moved her hand around in a circle, trying to find a way good way to phrase it, but gave up and went with the truth, “procrastinating.”

He side eyed his own workplace. “Can’t understand why you’d do that.” 

“I’m sure you don’t,” she said with a light snort. 

“Something about summer vacation makes the kids think they can do whatever the hell they want,” Hopper grumbled, tucking his hands into his pockets.

“Don’t I know it.” She took a drag from her cigarette and changed the topic from work. “Speaking of wild kids, how’s Jane doing?” 

“Oh, she’s doing really...” he started upbeat, before his face fell. “I have no idea.”

Joyce laughed, “Welcome to parenthood.” 

Hopper let out a puff of air. “I think we left normal parenthood territory awhile ago.” 

“Probably, but a normal parent wouldn’t be as good for her as you are,” she smiled.

“Petty sure any other parent would be better for her than I am.” 

Joyce’s smile turned sad and sympathetic. “She doesn’t want any other parent, she wants you.”

He huffed in a way that suggested he didn’t really agree with her, but didn’t want to talk about it anymore. 

She glanced down at her watch. “I should get to work.”

Hopper echoed her, a little disappointed that his reason for not going into the station was leaving. He watched her go, waiting until she had crossed the street before heading in, but she stopped, slapping her hand to her forehead and turning back around. 

“I almost forgot. Will wants to have you two over for dinner.” 

Hopper hesitated. “I don’t have to cook do I?” 

“I wouldn’t be inviting you if you did.” She took a step back to him. “You don’t have to say yes, but I think it’d be good for the kids, and you both need to eat something besides Eggos and TV dinners.” 

“That’s not fair. I got her to eat some fruit this morning.” 

She gave him a look that showed how unimpressed she was. 

“You’re worse than Flo,” Hopper practically whined. 

“I’ll see you Friday at six.” Evidently she had decided he did actually have to say yes. 

Again he watched as she crossed the street, rubbing at the back of his neck as he walked into the station. 

“You’re late,” Florence said the second he stepped through, shoving a coffee cup in his hand like she knew he was going to be there. 

“We arresting middle schoolers now?” he asked, ignoring her statement and nodding at the redhead slouched in a chair by Powell’s desk. 

“Powell arrested her brother speeding out on Maple Road,” she told him. 

“Step brother,” the redhead snapped over her shoulder. “And I’m a high schooler.” 

“Not yet, you aren’t.” Hopper grabbed a cookie from the table only to have it snatched away again by Florence. “I thought you had that boy whipped into shape.” 

“Yeah, well, apparently he thinks that when I’m not around HE CAN ACT LIKE A DIPSHIT,” she yelled the last part to ensure her brother heard it. 

“Language,” Florence chastised. 

“Powell, bring the dipshit out,” Hopper ordered, ignoring the disapproving glare from Flo. 

“On it, boss,” Powell yelled back. “Let’s go, tough guy.” 

“Get your hands off me,” Billy sneered, snatching his arm out of the cop’s grasp and fixing his jacket. 

Max jumped out of her seat, grabbed the sleeve of Billy’s jacket and started heading for the door. “There’s no rewards card here, it’s not like after the 9th stay you get the 10th free, you idiot.”

“I was-” he started. 

“I don’t wanna hear it, shitstain. You’re lucky I stopped them from calling your dad.” 

“We had a deal,” he growled. 

“Yeah, and you broke the rules.”

“Let’s save the domestics for home,” Hopper interjected from his office. Whenever he saw Max with Billy he felt like he should intervene, simply because he was so much bigger than she was, but she had proven she was more than capable of handling him. She had a remarkable tolerance for his crap, bailing him out more than once. He knew there were some family issues lurking around there as well, but unless he got a domestic disturbance call to their house, he wasn’t going to bother. 

“Sorry, Hop, we’ll get out of your hair. Good luck with the house hunting!” He was about to ask her how she had heard, but Max had yanked Billy out the door before he could get the words out.

“Poor girl,” Flo shook her head in dismay as she came in to give Hopper his messages. 

“Max can take care of herself.” 

 


	2. Chapter 2

“Well?” Hopper looked expectantly down at Eleven, who stood with crossed arms in the empty room Hopper imaged to be their new living room. Her sour expression was in almost humorous contrast to her otherwise sweet appearance. “It follows all our rules. It’s close to the school and the station and your friends. You’ve got your own bathroom and I’ve got a master bath.”   
She pulled her arms tighter, crinkling the flowers printed across her dress.   
“Okay, I know it doesn’t look great right now, but just try to imagine it.” He bent down so he was on her level and put a hand on her shoulder, stretching the other one out in front of them. “We’ll put the TV there and the record player here and then,” he turned her around, “the couch here.”   
“And a LaZboy?” she asked, looking back at him.   
“Sure, kid. We can get a LaZboy.” He directed her to the kitchen. “We can put a waffle iron there. Figured we could get one and I could, uh, figure out how to make waffles.”   
El looked up at him. There was something in his expression that she hadn’t seen there before. It was close to the look he had when he showed her his idea of real music, but there was a lot more of it. It was the same Dustin had when he introduced her to his new kitten or when Joyce talked about Jonathan getting into NYU. The closest word she had to describe it was joy.   
She nodded.   
“You think you can stand livin’ here?”   
She walked in a slow, small circle, looking it all over before turning back to him and saying one word that made Hopper decide he was buying the house, no matter the cost.   
“Home.”


	3. Chapter Three

“Pleeeeease Erica! I already gave you five dollars, and I told you you could keep the change after you buy it.”

“Well I changed my mind. What do you need a can of hairspray for anyway? I thought only girls used hairspray.”

Steve had been a few aisles over looking at deodorant when he heard what was unmistakably Dustin trying to convince someone to buy him a can of hairspray. Shaking his head, he found the aisle his young pupil was in and broke up the deal. He reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet, and gave Erica another five bucks. “Give him his money back and go get some candy or something, ‘kay kid?” She exchanged the money and skipped off, as Dustin turned to Steve with his mouth already open for an excuse.

“She said she would do it yesterday when I asked her, and I didn’t really think she would but-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is not how you do this. If you can’t go in there and buy it yourself, you aren’t ready for this way of life.” Steve punctuated this with a very pointed look and crossed his arms. He had been trying to help Dustin break out of his shell for a while now, and while there were things that he had really been getting better with, this was taking two steps back. He walked over to the next aisle, grabbed a bottle of hairspray off of the shelf, and then walked back and handed it to Dustin.

“If anyone asks, say you’re buying it for your mom.”

Dustin looked at the bottle in his hands like it was a grenade, but took a deep breath and turned towards the registers at the front of the store.

As he was walking away, Steve heard him muttering under his breath, “My mom. Why didn’t I think of that.”

Steve shook his head and tossed what he needed into the basket he was carrying and headed up to the register, smiling at the cashier. Pocketing his change and grabbing hold of the plastic bag, he walked back out into the summer heat.

“Hey, Steve!” Dustin called, grabbing Steve’s shoulder and making him jump.

Steve turned, swinging his shoulder away from the hand as he went. “Jesus, man. Don’t sneak up on people like that.”

Dustin fought to keep down a laugh. “I was standing out in the open. In broad daylight. I said ‘Hey, Steve’. Loudly. That’s not sneaky.”

“Did you want something? Besides giving me a heart attack?”

“Yeah. I’m goin’ to see El.” He swung his backpack off his shoulder and unzipped it to reveal a large stash of pudding and candy. “I’m bringing her sustenance.”

Steve peered into the open pocket. “Uh huh.”

“Wanna come?”

“Ummmm no.”

“Come oooon,” Dustin pushed.

“I’ve got shit to do.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“No, you don’t,” Dustin repeated.

“Yeah, I do,” Steve emphasized his words, trying to get his point across.

 

-

 

“Why the fuck- pht phhbt ehh!” Steve had to pause his question as he attempted to spit out the spider web that he had walked face first into. His feet repeatedly stumbled over fallen branches and loose dirt. “Why the fuck does Hopper live in the middle of the goddamn woods?”

“To protect El from the bad men and the CSI,” Dustin said, striding easily over the fallen leaves.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Of course that’s why. There can’t ever be a normal reason for things in this town, can there?”

“Nope!” Dustin grinned.

A grunt left Steve as small branch whacked him across the cheek. “Why am I going to see some random middle schooler again?”

“All your friends are middle schoolers.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Plus she saved all of us like a gazillion times and is probably the coolest girl in the whole world.”

“Right,” Steve said in that way grown ups did when they didn’t believe kids but wanted to humor them.

“How many girls do you know that can lift a van? With her _mind_!” Dustin asked, raising his brows.

“None, because that’s fucking crazy.”

“I think you mean fucking awesome.”

Steve eyed the boy for a moment. “Yeah, I guess that is pretty cool.”

Dustin’s eyes narrowed as his cheeks lifted in a smile, before his expression completely shifted into a much more serious expression. “You should know, Hopper has a shit ton of rules we have to follow.”

“What kind of rules.”

“Don’t talk about El to anyone outside of the party,” Dustin began to recite.

“Magic monster girl is a secret? Shocking.”

“Don’t be a dick head. Magic didn’t make her, science did.”

Steve swatted a wayward branch out of his face “Whatever. Anything else I need to know?”

“We’re supposed to teach her one school thing for every fun thing we teach her, but the only person who really does that is Will. Mike says he does but it’s total bullshit. And Lucas got weapons and power usage banned.”

“Probably a good idea.”

“No one listens to that either.”

“Of course not.”

Dustin deftly climbed over a large tree that had fallen and stood waiting on the other side as Steve struggled to swing his leg over it, trying not to laugh.

“Oh, and I’m technically not allowed to bring her junk food, but we’ve been hiding the trash under one of the loose floorboards in her room, and Hopper hasn’t found out yet, so lets keep it that way. Got it?”

Steve was too preoccupied with making it over the log while still in possession of his dignity to remind Dustin that Hopper would definitely find out about the pudding when his cabin was infested with mice and rats. He finally made it over and noticed a rundown little shack a few yards ahead.

“Tell me that’s not it.”

Dustin was already several feet ahead, ducking and jumping for no apparent reason.

“You gotta keep up, but watch out for the boobytraps!”

Steve started walking towards the cabin, stopping every once in a while to duck under piece of fishing wire of questionable origin. When they finally got a few feet from the front porch, Dustin stopped and stuck his hand out behind him, motioning for Steve to stop.

“Chief Hopper? It’s me, Dustin Henderson. And Steve Harrington. We’re here to see El-I mean Jane. We’re unarmed and weren’t followed,” Dustin shouted.

A few moments passed, but there was no sign of movement from anywhere inside the cabin. Dustin climbed the porch steps and knocked on the door, repeatedly calling for the Chief, and when that didn’t create any better results, he started kicking the door and shouting for El.

“I don’t think anyone’s home, man.”

Dustin turned and shot Steve a look. “Hopper might not be home, but El should be. Where else would she be?”

After a few more rounds of announcing himself, knocking on the door, and trying to peek through the thick curtains on the windows, Dustin turned around and started walking back through the woods.

“Jesus, Henderson, remind me to not listen to you next time you say ‘let’s go bushwhacking this afternoon’ just to turn around and do it all over again.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Mom, it’s fine,” Jonathan said, taking the bowl of vegetables she had been fussing over for the last three and a half minutes and setting it on the table. 

“You don’t think the broccoli’s a little too soggy?” she asked, leaning around his shoulder. 

“It looks great. Relax.”

“Are you su-” She stopped when her son turned around and gave her a look. “I just want it to be nice. They’ve both done so much for us.” 

“They’re going to love it.” 

A loud knock sounded from the entryway followed by a “Mom, door!”

“I heard it, Will,” Joyce yelled back. “Can you get it?” 

“Yeah!” 

A few seconds and some brief muffled small talk later, Hopper was walking into the dining room wearing a button up that surprisingly didn’t hold a shining badge. 

“Smells good.” 

“Jonathan, can you go get the rolls?” Joyce asked. 

Hopper waited until the teenager had left before speaking again, “Will looks good.” 

“Yeah, he’s sleeping through the night most of the week now.” She leaned forward so she could see him, still standing by the door. “He grew an inch this month.” 

“He’s gonna be as tall as Lonnie soon.” 

A snort resounded. “God, I hope so.” 

“Hey, Mom.” Will hesitated as he entered the dining room. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Just how much I love you,” she cooed, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him on the cheek. 

“Ugh, Mooom,” he groaned, trying to shove her off and making her laugh.

Pulling back from her son, Joyce smiled at Eleven and held out her arms. It didn’t take  much more than a second for the girl to bury herself in her arms, holding on tight. Joyce squeezed El’s shoulders, pulling her closer before letting her go. 

“I hope you like pork chops,” Joyce said, directing her to the table. 

“Pork chops?” 

“You know what pork is,” Hopper reminded her as he took a seat at the end of the table. 

“Pig.” When he nodded, she added, “So it’s meat?” 

“Yeah, it kinda looks like chicken,” Will answered, sitting across from where Jonathan had just set his drink. “Do- do you know what chicken is?” 

“Bird.” 

“Yeah.” 

Eleven took the seat next to him and sunk down to get on eye level with her plate, staring down the pork chop. She didn’t show any sign of letting up, even as the rest of the group settled into their seats and started shoving vegetables onto their plates. 

“You gonna challenge it to a staring contest or eat it?” Hopper asked, pushing her plate towards her.

“Eat it,” she told him as she sat up straight and picked up her fork. Before she had time to cut off a piece and make good on her promise, Hopper dumped a spoonful of veggies in front of her. She narrowed her eyes at him, but redirected her fork to pick up a spear of broccoli without argument.

“Oh!” Will piped up suddenly. “I forgot the- I’m just gonna- I’ll be right back,” he stumbled, slipping from his chair and headed down the hall. 

Hopper looked over at Joyce in question, but she just shrugged and smiled. Jonathan put his forearms on the table and leaned forward, anticipating what was to come. As Will came back into the room and settled back into his chair with his feet hanging off the side so he was facing El, he held something tightly in his hands. Picking up on the fact that whatever it was he was holding was for her, El turned in her seat and pulled her feet up into the folds of her skirt. 

“I thought since you're now officially part of the party, you should have a walkie talkie.” He lowered his arms and opened her hands so she could see it. “I don’t know if you need one because you have your powers but I thought maybe, I don’t know-” 

“Will.” 

He stopped babbling and looked up from his hands to her eyes. 

“Thank you.” 

Grinning, Will set the walkie talkie into her waiting hands. She held it carefully, without daring to move. This was a moment she didn’t even know she had been waiting for. She finally felt like she was part of something she wanted to be part of. 

“I already put it on the channel we use, so you can talk to the rest of the party,” Will told her, pointing at the switch above the volume dial. 

El turned it on and smiled at the quiet static that came from the speakers. 

“I can teach you the lingo, if you want. I don’t think Mike would be mad if you didn’t use it, but…” 

Eleven had started nodding excitedly when he was less than half way through. 

“Eat your broccoli first,” Hopper said before the kids got a chance to race off to Will’s room. 

_ “Eat your broccoli first” _ Hopper’s voice sounded again from the walkie talkie. 

Jonathan raised a hand in attempt to hide his snort.

“What did I tell you about mocking me with your powers?” 

“Very funny,” she quoted, turning back to her dinner. 

“I was being sarcastic. That means don’t do it,” Hopper said, waving a fork at her. 

Joyce coughed into her napkin to camouflage the sound of her laughter, shaking her head at her son when it looked like he was going to crack.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in awhile, guys. Life kinda got in the way

“Jim Hopper, is that you?” a tall blond woman asked, shielding her eyes with a hand. The other hand rested on a stroller.

“Shit,” Hopper muttered as he handed a box off to El. He put on his best imitation of a smile and turned to face the woman. “Hey, Chrissy.”

“I heard the rumors that you were settling down in the suburbs, but I must admit, I wasn’t fully convinced until right now,” she giggled in a way that made Hopper regret the decision to move. “Is that her? The girl you adopted?”

“Yeah, that’s her.” He turned to look at her through the window as she set the box down. “That’s Jane.” “Aw sweet name,” Chrissy cooed. “Yeah, her, uh, her mom picked it out,” Hopper said, looking back at her.

“Oh.”

Hopper saw the look of awe on the face of the boy in the stroller before he saw the box moving and knew almost instantly what it meant. He turned his head just enough to see the open trunk of his Chevy and slammed his hand down on the cardboard top of the box, keeping it from moving anymore.

“Well, I should get back to it,” he said quickly as Chrissy’s brows raised.

“Of course. You two let me know if you need anything, okay?” she smiled, before continuing with her walk.

Heaving the box out of the trunk, Hopper stormed into his house. “Goddamnit, Eleven!” he shouted, letting the box drop. “What did I tell you about that? Rule one!”

“Don’t use my powers in front of people,” she said without looking at him.

“Why?” his voice echoed in the empty house.

“Because it’s a risk,” she grumbled at the ground.

“And?”

She glared up at him, arms pinned at her side. “We don’t take risks because we aren’t stupid.” Her eyes bore into his and her mouth formed a tight line. “And I am not Eleven!”

Hopper dragged a hand down his face and sighed into his hand. “I know.”

“I’m Jane Hopper,” she said firmly, anger still hiding in the corners of her voice.

“I know you’re Jane Hopper. I’m the one who got the birth certificate forged, remember?”

All she did was continue to stare up at him from under her furrowed brow. Her hands still clenched into fists at her sides. He let out a sigh and picked up the box again and stacked it on top of the small mountain of boxes he had already brought in, then turned around and headed back towards the door for another round.

“Move those if you want to help so bad.”

She wasn’t in the mood to listen to him yet, so she sat up against the wall where they decided their couch would go and just stared at the boxes with her arms crossed over her chest. Hopper ignored her as he trudged past with a new load to his room. He past her three more times before he finally stopped and looked down at her.

“I’m not unpacking your room.” He adjusted his hold on the box in his arms and started walking again. “If you don’t want to sleep on a bare mattress, you better get crackin’.”

El huffed in response.

“I’ll be in my room. Don’t hurt yourself with the box cutter.”

She crossed her arms tighter, but got to her feet and lifted a box up to float behind her as she headed to her new bedroom.

-

_Ding-dong_

The box that had been floating down the hallway dropped to the floor with a thud, and El shot up. The sound of a bell ringing in a house was not something she had heard before, and it broke her concentration abruptly. She walked back into the kitchen to see if Hopper was in there ringing a bell or playing some kind of music, but no such luck.

_Ding-dong ding-dong_

She finally found him in his bedroom, unpacking the box on top of a small tower of other boxes, but she didn’t see any bells in the things that he had already unpacked on the bed. He didn’t seem concerned about the ringing and continued pulling his clothes out of the box.

“Ya gonna answer the door or just stare at me?” he asked without turning around.

_Ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong ding-dong_

She picked her way through the maze of boxes back through the narrow hallway, following the sound to the front door and pulled it open. Standing on the other side with his finger pointing at something on the side of the door frame was Dustin, balancing three pizza boxes in his other hand. Behind him was the rest of the party, with Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, and Joyce on the sidewalk behind them. El blinked at them. Nobody had mentioned that they were coming over.

“Jane, who’s at the door? If it’s someone sellin’ somethin’ just tell them we’re not interested...Oh. ” Jim had been scanning the labels of the boxes the in living room when he saw the crowd at the door.

Mike stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Steve and Dustin went to visit you the other day, but you weren’t there, and we thought it was weird, so when Dustin and Lucas saw your car in the driveway when they were riding their bikes this morning, they came and got me and Will, who heard from his mom that Hopper was talking about moving soon.”

Joyce gave him a half apologetic smile from the sidewalk.

“And it just kind of spiraled from there. But we’re here to help,” Mike finished.

Dustin leaned around Mike and held out the boxes he had brought. “I brought pizza.”

Hopper didn’t quite know what to say. He purposefully hadn’t told anyone that they were moving in today because he didn’t want a bunch of people standing around pretending to help when they were really just in the way. He wasn’t an idiot though, he was going to have to go back to work at some point before the end of the month and at the pace they were going it didn’t seem like that was going to be a possibility any time soon.

Nacy pulled a yellow box from her bag and joined Dustin in holding it out. “And I, uh, I brought some Eggo’s.”

Turning her head, El looked up at Hopper, her eyes wide and pleading. He glanced over his shoulder at the practically empty living room and all the work still to be done.

“Fine, but you’re gonna have to do some work before we can eat. I’ll take Steve and Jonathan out to get the couch. The rest of you can help Jane unpack.”

The kids all filed into the house and he grabbed his keys from the windowsill, stopping by Joyce on his way out to the Chevy.

“Don’t let them break my new house,” he muttered.

“I’m not a miracle worker, Hop,” she smiled, walking past him to the entryway as he stepped through door and pulled it shut. “Boys! Those aren’t swords! Put them down!” Hopper stood on the front step for a second, considering going back in to help, but decided it was her problem now.


End file.
